Mend
by ProcrastinatingPalindrome
Summary: Bolin needs a little help recovering from his encounter with the Equalists. Brotherly fluff and hints of Borra.


Bolin felt like his body had been run through a meat grinder by the time they finally made it back home. His legs ached from being forced to kneel uncomfortably for hours. His wrists stung with rope burns. Pain radiated out from the spot on his chest where the bolts of energy had hit him. He was bruised and battered all over and wanted nothing more than to go to bed and sleep for the next week.

Mako was disturbingly silent on the long trek back to their loft. He never seemed to even acknowledge Bolin except to put a hand on his shoulder to steady him when his exhausted legs threatened to buckle under him. He was furious, Bolin just knew it. It was only a matter of time before he went off like a rocket. And Bolin deserved it, didn't he? He was always the one to cause trouble, always the one that needed saving.

Mako had yet to say a word by the time they arrived back home. He helped Bolin ease his way down onto the couch and then took a seat on the opposite end, threading his fingers together and scowling at the floor. Bolin braced himself, waiting for Mako to erupt, but when his brother finally spoke, his voice came out terribly small and unsteady.

"You really scared me, Bo. I thought I'd lost you."

Bolin swallowed hard and looked away, scrubbing a hand over his nose when it started to sting. Korra had promised to come back to check up on them after she met with Tenzin, and he really didn't want her walking in on him getting teary.

"I'm fine, Mako," he managed to get out when his throat felt less tight. "Sure, I got a little banged up, but it's nothing worse than the average pro-bending match."

"You don't get tied up or electrocuted during the average pro-bending match," Mako shot back. A sharp edge had started to form in his voice. "Why the _hell_ did you go along with Shady Shin in the first place?"

Bolin hunched his shoulders, stared at the floor. "Sorry," he mumbled. "I didn't think."

"You never do," Mako snapped.

And there was nothing Bolin could say in return. He could only fix his eyes ahead, staring at nothing and feeling the weight of guilt sinking in his stomach. He almost fell off the couch when Mako suddenly wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him into a hug.

"Sorry, Bo," he said softly, muffled. "I'm not mad."

Bolin nodded, gulped and pulled back. If Mako didn't stop holding him like that he was going to start blubbering for real. "I-I'm kind of sore, so could you not…"

Mako immediately let go as if he had been burned. "Oh, sorry. I should have realized. How's your chest now? Is it still hurting?"

"Not much."

"Come on. You know you can't lie to me. Pull your shirt up, let me look at it."

A knock at the door interrupted them. Korra must have finally made it back. Bolin moved to get up but Mako stopped him with a light swat on the head.

"Stay put, Bo," he said firmly, in a voice that left no room for argument. "You need to rest."

There was no point in fighting about it now, and so Bolin let his head loll back onto the couch and closed his eyes, listening. He heard the creak of the door opening and Korra asking loudly if they were both okay before Mako shushed her. Their voices dropped to the point that he couldn't make out the words, and he pried an eye open to peek out at them. Korra always seemed to talk with her hands when she was worried, and now she was gesturing a great deal. His eyelids began to feel unbearably heavy as the exhaustion of the day caught up with him. It'd fine to close his eyes for just a minute…

…except that it must have been a little more than just a minute because the next thing he knew Korra was poking him on the shoulder a lot harder than necessary.

"Hey, wake up," she whispered, punctuating each word with a jab.

"I'm awake," he groaned, forcing his eyes open reluctantly. "What happened?"

"Nothing happened!" Her eyes looked oddly bright in the dimly lit apartment. "Well, almost nothing. I wanna try an experiment with you."

Blink. "That…sounds ominous."

Mako snorted from off to the side. "It's not. She's being dramatic. She just wants to practice waterbending healing on you."

"Yeah, that," Korra said, nodding. "I'm actually really terrible at this. Master Katara tried to teach me, but I'm just not really a healer type, you know? But I figured this would be a handy thing to know for times like this, so…" She shrugged. "I can practice, and if it works, you might feel less awful. What do you say?"

"Just go ahead and let her try, Bo," Mako cut in. "I let her try on me and it worked pretty well. And you're in much worse shape than I am."

"No, I'm really not," Bolin groaned, all too aware that he was putting up a really pathetic resistance. "I swear, it all looks way worse than it is."

Mako's eyes narrowed. "You took a bolt of energy to the chest. That can be very dangerous. You know that."

"Y-yeah, but it's not bad. I'm just a little achy and I've got some palpitations, but it'll go away..."

"That is nothing to take lightly."

"I'm not! And hey, you got shocked too!"

"Yeah, and I let Korra work on that." He managed a small smile. "I have to admit, I'm impressed. It doesn't really hurt at all now."

"There, see? Testimony from your own blood," Korra said. Her voice sounded a little unnaturally cheerful, a little too forced. Something wasn't right with her, but Bolin's head was too foggy for him to puzzle it out.

"Alright, fine," he allowed. "What do I have to do?"

"Just sit still. Oh, and take your shirt off first."

In spite of himself, Bolin could feel a little heat rising in his face. "What, right now?"

"You're picking a strange time to get bashful about taking your clothes off," Mako said lightly. "You sure don't have a problem doing it for your fans-"

"That was one time, Mako, one time! And you said you wouldn't tell anyone! Plus, I think someone slipped me cactus juice beforehand so it doesn't even count-"

"Regardless," Mako cut him off sharply, "she can't do this through your shirt. Do you need some help getting it off?"

"I can look away for a sec," Korra added. "Would that make it easier?"

Bolin's face was definitely more than a little warm now. "Y-yeah, I guess. And um…yeah, Mako, I'm really sore and I could…use a hand."

To his relief, his brother seemed done with his brief moment of teasing and made quick work of helping him out of the shirt. He could hardly feel bashful about undressing in front of Mako, not after all they had been through together, but Korra was a different situation entirely. The shock he received earlier was making his heartbeat feel strange, but there was a very different reason for the pounding in his chest when Korra turned back around. He couldn't bring himself to look at her face as she stepped closer and dropped his eyes to his chest. Oh, bad idea. The burns from the energy rods looked much worse than he had imagined.

"O-okay," she said quietly, clearing her throat. "Alright. I think I can do this. Uh, just…relax, okay?"

Bolin managed a weak nod, dizzy from a sudden wave of nausea (and just a little from having Korra so close.) He tried to keep his eyes off the grisly wound and instead focused on her hands as she pulled a ball of water from a flask and, slowly, carefully, brought it up to his chest.

At first it was only oddly cold, and the sudden contact against the damaged skin made Bolin suck in a sudden breath into a hiss. He tried to force his attention back to Korra. Her hand hovered just barely over his skin as she held the water in place. His cheeks were tainted faintly pink, and she held her tongue between her teeth as she concentrated on the process. She looked so oddly cute with her tongue out that Bolin almost started to laugh…but then there was a sudden, powerful tingling spreading through his chest, melting the pain back and making his breath catch.

"Oooh," he managed weakly. "Oh…that…um…"

"Is it working?" Korra asked hopefully, and Bolin just jerked his head up and down a few times. It was a sensation unlike anything he had felt before, almost defying explanation. It seemed to soak deep into his skin, past flesh and muscle, leaving everything humming faintly as the injuries began to mend. It made him feel boneless, and if he hadn't been sitting already he might have fallen.

At last she pulled her hand away, letting the tingling slowly fade into nothing. There was still a faint ache in his chest, but it was nothing like the sharp pain from earlier. The palpitations seemed to have disappeared as well. Bolin swallowed and forced himself to look back at his chest. The hideous burn had shrunk and faded; it looked and felt like an old healing wound.

"Wow," he said softly. "Wow, Korra, that's…that's really something. You're amazing."

She made a noise that was too soft and sad to be quite a laugh as she pushed herself to her feet. "It's nothing. Bending is the Avatar's job, right?"

"What's the matter?" he asked, frowning. Something was eating her. Something had been eating at her ever since she rescued him…

"Don't worry about it," she said hastily, brushing it off before he could pry further. "You better get some rest. Waterbending only goes so far." She turned and began to walk towards the door when she suddenly paused and glanced back, oddly shy. "Take care of yourself, alright? You've got a couple people who really worry when you go and get yourself all kidnapped and banged up!"

And with that she hurried away.

Mako waited until the door had closed behind her before he cleared his throat awkwardly. "She's right, you know. Two people worry about you an awful lot."

"I know," Bolin said softly, finding himself able to smile for the first time since he had returned home. "I'm pretty lucky for a kidnap victim."


End file.
